Support for electric fixtures.



G. H. GROFFMAN.

SUPPORT FOR ELECTRIC FIXTURES.

APPLICATION FILED MAYB, 1913.

D 1,131,059. Patented M21119, 1915.

m- Jllllllllllll |llllllllllll d 4% w 7 e ilfi INVENTOR. ima,

B'y ATTORNEY.

HE NORRIS PETERS co. FHOTD-LITHC7. WASHINGTON u L CHARLES H.'GROFFMA1\T, or SYRACUSE, NEW YORK.

SUPPORT FOR ELECTRIC FIXTURES.-

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented ar.:9,191 5.

Application filed May s, 1913. Serial No. 766,380.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, CHARLES H. Gnorr- MAN, of Syracuse, in the county of Onondaga, in the State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in Supports for Electric Fixtures, of which the following, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to certain improvements in supports for electric fixtures and is adapted to be used more particularly in connection with what is commonly known as knob and tube work for electrical wiring of buildings as distinguished from conduit work or that class'in which the wires are passed through pipes or conduits. In the conduit work, the ends of the pipes are usually equipped with outlet or junction boxes in the side walls or ceiling of the building and constitute sufiicient support for the electric fixtures, but, in the knob and tube work special provision has to be made for the support of the electroliers or other-fixtures and, owing to the lack of uniformity in selecting this class of supports, it is left entirely to the discretion of the electrician who is installing the work and, in many instances, is found to be unreliable and more or less dangerous from improper securement or liability of short circuits.

The main object is to provide a more reliable means for supporting electric fixtures in buildings where conduit-wires and junctionboxes are not employed, and at the same time to permit the fixturewith its wires properly connected and insulated from each other to be easily and quickly installed or removed as a unit. In other words, I have sought to produce a simple, compact and comparatively inexpensive fixture support having a sufiiciently wide range of adjustment to enable it to be standardized and adopted more universally than any of the present widely varying methods.

Another object is to construct the fixture support in such manner that the lath and plaster may be finished flush with the lower side of the base of said support, so that the fixtures and insulators for the binding posts upon a single bar which may be attached to or detached from the base by the movement of a single fastening member, therebypermitting theinsulator and fixture to be properly secured to said bar before the latter is installed and, at the same time, allowing the bar to be firmly secured to the base and the binding post connected to the supply wires withthe assurance that the fixture is safely secured and the wires properly connected.

Other objects and uses will be brought out in the following description.

In the drawingsFigure 1 is an inverted plan of a device embodying the various features of my invention. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of the same device as secured to a pairof joists. Figs. 3 and 4c are perspective views of fragmentary portions of diametrically opposite sides of the fixture-supporting base showing the means for interlocking the fixture supporting bar therewith. Fig. 5 is a detail sectional view through one of the insulators and its supporting bar. I

This fixture support comprises a strut 1 and a base 2 having a detachable fixture-supporting bar 3' carrying a pair of insulators '4. and an electric fixture -5, the insulators 4 being adapted to receive and support separate sets of wire clamping members or binding posts 6. The strut 1 may be made of cast metal or stock steel bars of suificient length to span the maximum standard distance between the joists or studs of the building so that its ends may be secured by suitable fastening meansas screws 7 to the underside of the joists or studs as a, Fig. 2. This bar is of substantially the same thickness as an ordinary lath and is provided with a continuous lengthwise slot 9 through the greater portion of its length to receive the bolts or screws -7, also suit able attaching means as bolts or studs -l0' by which the base -2 is attached thereto, thereby allowing the box to be adjusted longitudinally practically the entire distance between the joists or length of the bar to conform to the desired position of the fixture 5. The intermediate portion of the bar between the joists 0; is preferably disposed in a plane at one side of but parallel with the ends a distance corresponding approximately to the thickness of be indicated respectively by the reference letters -b and -0', thereby allowing the plaster to finish flush with the lower face of the base.

The base 2 preferablyconsists of a cylindrical cup-shaped member of cast metal or equivalent material secured in an inverted position to the under side of the strut 1 and its fastening means as the bolts 10- passing through'the slots and provided with ends whereby the base 2 may be firmly clamped in its adjusted position, the bolts 10 being disposed diametrically opposite each other. and equidistant from; the center of the base so as to give the entire device a symmetrical and balanced appearance.

The upper closed side'of the box is preferably provided with a pair of tubular bosses 11 for receiving the current-supply wires as (Z which are brought downwardly through said bosses and Ffastened to the binding posts -6 by one set of screws thereon, the other set of screws,

one for each insulator, serving as a means I of attachment for the ends of the fixture wires as e. i

The periphery of the base is substantially smooth and cylindrical while its interior is provided with diametrically opposite barretaining members l4 and -15 formedintegral therewith and producing with the closed side of the base radial recesses or slots --16 and l7. The slot 1+ is permanently closed at both ends while the slot 17 is permanently closed at one end; only the opposite end being removed but is replaced by a movable detent -18 consisting of a screw entering a threaded aperture in the adjacent portion of the base. These retainers -14 and 15 and their slots-16- and 17 constitute means for receiving and supporting the opposite ends of the fixture-supporting bar 3- which may be made of cast metal or equivalent material and is preferably of relatively narrow width as compared with the diameter of the base but still of suiticient :width to form a substantial support for the fixture 5, the ends of said bar being practically the same but of slightly less width than the slots 16- and-17 which they are adapted to enter.

Thecentral portion of the base -3-- is depressed below, but in a .plane substam tially parallel with that of its ends to allow ample space below the top of the base for thepassage of 'thewires from the fixture to the binding posts. In placing this bar in operative position, the screw 18 is first loosened and one end of the baris then inserted in the slot 16 after which theopposite end of the bar is drawn into the slot l7 through its open side whereupon the screw 18 is tightened in operative position to firmly hold the bar against accidental displacement.

The object in providing the bar -3'- with opposite diverging sides is to receive the insulators l-- and to support them a sufficient distance apart from each other and from the fixture to reduce the liability of short circuits due to carelessnessin connecting "the wires and also to facilitate adjustment or readjustment of the wires after the fixture "is in place by simply loosening the canopy -f and sliding ,it downward.

It will also beobserved that by removing the screw'1'8 and disconnecting the supply wires from the binding posts, the bracket 3 and entire fixture attached thereto and supported thereby 'maybe-re-' moved from the base.

Whatl claim is: v 1. .In a support for electric fixtures, the

combination of a hollow base, a fixture-sup porting bar removably mounted within and i upon the base and having its central por-= tion depressed below its ends and'provided. with means for attachinga fixture, insulators secured to said barfat: opposite sides of said fixture attaching means, and blndingg posts for supply and fixture wires mounted on the insulators. v

2. In a support ffor electric fixtures,qthe

combination of an inverted cup-shap'e?base,

a cross-bar within the base and movable relatively thereto," means for holdingthe bar in operative position on the base said bar having :central attaching means for: "a fixture, insulators on the bar at opposite sides of the fixture attaching means, .and

binding posts for the fixture; wires secured- Copiesof this patent may-be obtained for five cents each,'by adaressingthe ".Gommissionerof ll'atents,

' washingtomm. '0. 

